I suspect that this is the direct result of AI generated content just overwhelming any real content.
I tried ddg, google, bing, quant, and none of them really help me find information I want these days.
Perplexity seems to work but I don’t like the idea of AI giving me “facts” since they are mostly based on other AI posts
ETA: someone suggested SearXNG and after using it a bit it seems to be much better compared to ddg and the rest.
If it’s free then you’re the product
And if you’re the product then there’s an interest to keep you on the site and show you ads which works best if the first result isn’t the correct one and you need to scroll or even go to page two
It’s literally the reason why Google got so much worse that they wanted to show more ads to users which wouldn’t work if the best result is always the first
If you think paying means you aren’t still the product, I have news for you.
I don’t need my search history tied directly to a means of payment, and not because I search for illicit stuff, but because I don’t need an advertising profile built on me that is absolutely tied to me now, because I paid for it.
If Kagi doesn’t turn out to be selling that info in a year or two, I’ll eat a bug.
Exactly. A paid search engine is a privacy nightmare, and you have zero guarantees that they don’t monetize you one way or another in addition to the subscription fee.
